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Me and ADHD

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Re: Me and ADHD

#71

Post by schneidmaster »

ardy42 wrote: post #45
schneidmaster wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coffee consumption was actually one of the questions that I was asked when my therapist first suspected that I had ADHD. I used to drink 5+ cups per day (especially workdays) while feeling fairly little effect from it. I'm now on medication which works an order of magnitude better for managing my symptoms, and I rarely drink more than 1 cup of coffee per day. It's also worth noting that ADHD often comes with other me…

> Coffee consumption was actually one of the questions that I was asked when my therapist first suspected that I had ADHD. I used to drink 5+ cups per day (especially workdays) while feeling fairly little effect from it. Did you get a big boost when you first started with it that reduced as you developed tolerance with habitual use? I've always been pretty careful with caffeine consumption in order to avoid tolerance…

Not really. Even when I first started drinking coffee (around high school) I never got much of a boost from it. I think your caution makes sense for folks with neurotypical brains, but even now (drinking 0-1 cups per day) I drink it for the flavor and/or social aspects, not because it does much for my energy or productivity.

Re: Me and ADHD

#72

Post by sudosysgen »

imesh wrote: post #27
madamelic wrote: post #20

Fellow ADHD person: Get diagnosed and get a low-dose of meds. It helps _a lot_. You will likely hate the feeling they give you for the first week (you will genuinely feel high even on 10mg Adderall XR), along with nightmares and night sweats but after a few weeks, you'll suddenly be productive at a very normal level. I don't feel strung out nor is it some addiction. Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "l…

> I don't feel strung out nor is it some addiction. Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "literal meth" and how it will certainly kill you. Even with an addictive personality, it's very easy to avoid over-doing it (hint: only take it as prescribed). Low dose meth does work pretty similar to Adderall. Everyone who does meth does not become a meth addict. Most don't. But the people who become meth addicts a…

Low dose meth has a lot of similarities but quite a few, significant, differences to Adderall. The biggest are tropism and release.

Statistically, because of the addictive effects of untreated ADHD, the likelihood of substance addiction with or without amphetamine treatment is almost equal. There is of course a risk of getting addicted to Adderall, but amphetamines with long releases are not very addictive as far as drugs go and the risk of getting addicted to other things is drastically reduced.

Methamphetamine as used illegally is a lot more addictive than Adderall because it is generally consumed in ways that lead to much more immediate effects and not orally, and even when orally it is generally formulated to be released more quickly. More rapid effects seriously increase addiction potential.

The doses are also much smaller for Adderall than meth in 99% of cases.

Because of these factors, methamphetamine is much more addictive than pharmaceutical amphetamine salts.

Re: Me and ADHD

#74

Post by 0xb0565e486 »

Am I the only one who feels a bit discredited when someone blames their ADHD for their shortcomings?

To me, all the ADHD symptoms listed in this article sounds like nothing more but normal human traits.

Also, author hasn't been diagnosed with ADHD, and the tips can be helpful to everyone.

Re: Me and ADHD

#75

Post by commandlinefan »

> hard time focusing on things that I don’t like or want to do

Not trying to be insensitive, but doesn't that describe everybody? At what point does difficulty motivating yourself to do something unpleasant become an actual pathology? I identify with a lot of the symptoms he lists, but I've never thought that meant there was anything "wrong" with me, I thought everybody felt that way. Are there really people out there who can cheerfully do things they don't want to do?

Re: Me and ADHD

#76

Post by hi_hello »

athorax wrote: post #5
throwaway713 wrote: post #2

> Minimizing menial tasks. Menial tasks really suck. I know everyone must hate doing these, but to put it into perspective, I would rather do 20 hours of really really hard work on a tough project than do 5 hours of menial tasks Interesting. I have ADHD (inattentive subtype) and am quite the opposite. My apartment is never cleaner than when I have an extremely important, open-ended project with multiple stakeholders…

For me, it is the "open-ended" part of a project that really ends up screwing me. If I don't have a definitive task/goal to work towards that is when I start to procrastinate

So much. Open-ended or poorly defined projects can really spiral into attentive dysphoria for me. Productive procrastination – room cleaning and the like – is particularly appealing in that state, just to feel like I'm making progress on something.

Re: Me and ADHD

#77

Post by aidenn0 »

madamelic wrote: post #69
aidenn0 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Get diagnosed and get a low-dose of meds. It helps _a lot_. You will likely hate the feeling they give you for the first week (you will genuinely feel high even on 10mg Adderall XR), along with nightmares and night sweats but after a few weeks, you'll suddenly be productive at a very normal level. I wonder if I could have persisted long enough with Adderall to find a theraputic effect if it had been during lockdown…

> (swapping meds for a year) Definitely feel you there. It's the worst part about psychiatric drugs and why I've bailed on almost everyone I've ever been on. It's that initial hump and having to struggle through ~two weeks of hell. My partner has run the gamut so he constantly assured me it was normal and that I'd be fine. >The one thing I'd like to add is that diet for me made a huge difference. I might as well not…

My theory is I get a bit hypoglycemic with the typical American breakfast of pastry/bagel/cereal, but I kind-of don't care why.

Bacon is my go-to breakfast food; can cook up a bunch at a time and heat up what I need in the morning. I make some eggs to go with it if I have the time. The great thing about bacon for me is that it's so salty that I cannot overeat on it.

Re: Me and ADHD

#78

Post by disabled »

madamelic wrote: post #20

Fellow ADHD person: Get diagnosed and get a low-dose of meds. It helps _a lot_. You will likely hate the feeling they give you for the first week (you will genuinely feel high even on 10mg Adderall XR), along with nightmares and night sweats but after a few weeks, you'll suddenly be productive at a very normal level. I don't feel strung out nor is it some addiction. Ignore the people screaming about Adderall being "l…

> Lastly, caffeine does help from my testing, especially caffeine combined with L-Theanine. I used to take 100mg of HVMN "Sprint" pills as a test whether I had ADHD; it helped quite a bit. It didn't make me jittery and it let me focus much better.

Caffeine is an adenosine A2A receptor antagonist.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_A2A_receptor_antagon...

You may want to check out this paper, Adenosine A2Areceptor as potential therapeutic target in neuropsychiatric disorders: https://scihubtw.tw/10.1016/j.phrs.2019.104338

Caffeine has a problem though:

> Moreover, considering that caffeine has a half-life of 2.5-4.5 hours [137]the once-a-day schedule of administration used in clinical trials in ADHD patients could be insufficient to antagonize A2AR throughout the day; thus, in future trials different administration schedules should be used or, as an alternative, selective A2AR antagonists could be tested in animal models of ADHD. In particular, it would be interesting to test the efficacy of the A2AR antagonist istradefylline in view of its approval for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease in Japan [138].

Ironically, I just started taking Nourianz (istradefylline) (link: https://www.nourianz.com/) as a last-resort drug for my severe restless legs syndrome, which has been going phenomenally well. I also have ADHD combined type (inattention and hyperactivity), and fairly severely.

Anyways, I have been taking the the istradefylline for a week now, and it has made a tremendous difference in many of my ADHD symptoms. In addition, it greatly increased my sense of wellbeing within 1-2 hours of initially taking it, and it has been sustained for the entire week.

I hope you find this interesting! I take Vyvanse for my ADHD.

Thanks to istradefylline I can now focus seamlessly and without effort. I can just "lock in" to whatever I want to do. Before, it would require some static force ("friction") to be able to "lock in" my concentration to do the task. I can also just focus, without hyperfocusing. It now comes naturally to me. I also no longer find myself pacing around the house aimlessly. I also do not randomly get up from my seat or fidget hardcore. I can also lock back into a flow state without effort if I am disrupted.

Re: Me and ADHD

#79

Post by hmottestad »

O_H_E wrote: post #52

Anybody else here thinks their ADHD influences some hoarding tendencies or fear-of-missing-out? I am basically a tab-opening machine. Whenever I come across any link that I feel might be helpful in some point in the future, I open it in the background knowing full well that I don't have time to look at it soon. Thank god for TheGreatSuspender, and SessionBuddy extentions.

FYI. Something something something the great suspender stealing all your data.

Re: Me and ADHD

#80

Post by heroHACK17 »

athorax wrote: post #5
throwaway713 wrote: post #2

> Minimizing menial tasks. Menial tasks really suck. I know everyone must hate doing these, but to put it into perspective, I would rather do 20 hours of really really hard work on a tough project than do 5 hours of menial tasks Interesting. I have ADHD (inattentive subtype) and am quite the opposite. My apartment is never cleaner than when I have an extremely important, open-ended project with multiple stakeholders…

For me, it is the "open-ended" part of a project that really ends up screwing me. If I don't have a definitive task/goal to work towards that is when I start to procrastinate

Man, I am the same way. How have you coped with this? I work in a pretty open-ended environment without a lot of processes, so you can imagine it has been a struggle for me. I have tried to create tickets for myself but I seem to also struggle with defining the "done" state.
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